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AfDB Approves US$ 500,000 Post-Conflict Emergency Relief for Kenya

20-Jun-2008

Tunis, 20 June 2008 – The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group has approved a grant of US$ 500,000.0 million from its Special Relief Fund (SRF) to finance emergency relief programmes to alleviate the sufferings of victims of the recent post-election violence in Kenya.

The Board on 5 June 2008 approved the emergency humanitarian relief assistance in support of the Kenyan government and the United Nations efforts to provide urgent food aid distribution and deliveries of water purification supplies, medicines and shelter materials to victims of the civil unrest in which some 1,000 people died while 300,000 were displaced.

Furthermore, about 700,000 other people affected by three successive years of floods and drought from 2006 in parts of Kenya will also benefit from a US$ 500,000 emergency relief grant approved on Tuesday, 17 June 2008 in Tunis, by the Board of Directors of the AfDB Group.

The amount, also from the SFR, will be used to finance part of the cost of the humanitarian relief assistance to the affected people as well as support the Kenyan government and United Nations’ efforts to deliver urgent food aid and water purification supplies, medicines and shelter materials to flood victims.

As a result of successive seasons of failed rains followed by devastating floods since December 2006, some 3 million people have been plunged into crisis due to destroyed livelihoods and the death of livestock. The UN estimates that 700,000 people have been affected by the floods in terms of temporary displacement, loss of property, livestock and crop losses.

Over 100 people were reported drowned in flooded areas where some of Kenya’s poorest people reside. Communities have had their livelihoods ruined by three years of drought and floods with the most serious impact felt along the Tana River, where communities have been forced to move to higher ground. The river basin was severely flooded displacing some 3,500 people. All sanitation and water systems along the river south of Garissa were either damaged or destroyed.

There have been widespread cases of diarrhoea resulting from contaminated water; especially in Moyale, Kwale and Mombasa.

The floods have also caused serious damage to infrastructure, especially in the east where roads, clinics, schools and latrine systems have been damaged. The Somali refugee camp at Ifo and Dadaab was seriously affected with the hospital damaged and refugee homes inundated.

Meanwhile, the Bank Group Board is expected to approve another US$ 500,000 on 23 June 2008 to finance part of the country’s Avian Flu emergency preparedness programme.